Is the Successful Sales Person Made Or Born?

Many times when we think of a salesperson our mind brings up images of being locked in an office at the automobile dealership or held captive at a timeshare presentation. But all sales jobs are not like this. It is true that it takes a certain type personality to succeed in sales. A career in sales can offer you the opportunity to earn an above average income and unlimited potential for growth.

When I majored in marketing many years ago we were taught that everyone is selling someone something all the time. You can have the greatest product in the world but nothing happens until someone sells it. As people we are always selling ourselves to others. I think one of the main things needed to succeed in sales is a love of people. A sales person is always out there, always meeting people, and always networking. So, just what does it take to succeed in sales?

A sales person must have a positive attitude. Sales probably more than any other occupation involves rejection. With most products you have to ask a certain number of people to buy before the sale is actually made. Years ago when I sold life insurance, I eventually figured out what my sales ratio was. I had to ask about 10 people, in other words get 10 no's, before someone agreed to set an appointment with me. You must have a positive attitude to digest that much rejection day in and day out.

A sales person must have a plan. There are some jobs you can do that do not require a lot of planning. But when you are asking someone to spend their hard earned money you need to have a formula. You need training, sales materials, a presentation, and a system. Some companies provide leads or territories but typically most sales people are responsible for locating their own prospects. Sometimes people in sales have difficulty managing their time. Particularly ones that are outside the office all day. A successful sales person must be able to manage their time. Having a plan is the best way to do this.

A sales person must be committed to their success. It has long been argued if a salesperson is made or born. My opinion is that you are born with a certain personality type and certain types do better in sales. Typically the more outgoing person ends up in sales but it really depends upon the product you are selling. An introvert can become more outgoing and can succeed in sales. But it can be more difficult for them. To be successful in sales a person must be willing to learn everything about the product they are selling, sales techniques, and how to get along with others. This can take time. It takes 10 years to become a doctor, 5 years to become a lawyer, and 1000 hours to become a barber. Many times those in sales give up after just a few weeks or months, before they have had time to learn what is needed to be successful.

A sales person must be willing to continue learning and growing. Sales people are typically expected to be knowledgeable about their products and their company. They have to stay on top of what is happening as products change and situations change. Because they have so much contact with people they need to be aware of what is happening around them. Herbert Hoover said "the super-wise man learns from the experience of others." Top sales people attend meetings, read books, and associate with others in the sales profession.

A salesperson must know how to set goals. Some jobs just happen whether you do anything or not. But sales do not just happen. You have to make them happen. It is critical that a salesperson know how many sales they need to make to meet their quota, how much money they need to earn to maintain their life style, and what they need to do to make this happen. The best way to do this is to set daily, weekly or monthly goals.

A salesperson must be enthusiastic about their product. It is difficult to sell something you do not believe in. When you really believe in something, the other person can see and feel your passion. If you don't like the product or the company, the sale will be more difficult. It has been said that nothing great was every achieved without enthusiasm.

A salesperson must work hard and smart. Sales jobs are not easy. Much hard work is required if one is to be successful. But working hard is not enough. One must also work smart by managing their time and resources well, being disciplined, and following the example of others who have been successful. When I was in sales we followed the principle of "and then some." I didn't just give it my best, I gave it my best and then some. At the end of the day when I was ready to go home I would make one more sales call. Often that call would be the one that produced a sale. By giving just a little more time and effort you could propel yourself from an average salesperson to a super sales person.

All of the above tips have little to do with age, education, background, marital status, or sex. Some types of sales require specialized education or training but not all of them do. For the most part, success in sales is determined by the individual, by their attitude. Anyone can succeed as a sales person, if he or she wants it badly enough.

I am a personal life coach, writer and speaker. As the owner of Life Transitions, I specialize in helping the abused rebuild their lives.

I am passionate about women's issues and especially enjoy helping them develop their full potential. Life gives us many chances to start over again, like a cat with nine lives.

For more information see my Web Site http://www.margaretnortonlifecoach.com
Blog with me about abuse at http://www.whentiesbreak.blog.com

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Be a Successful Sales Manager, Not a Super Seller

How many sales teams suffer because their sales manager is not doing their job at the right "level"? Sales figures suffer, sales people suffer and the sales managers feel pressured and possibly even stressed. I want to look at some of the reasons why this occurs and offer some initial ideas for how sales managers can carry out their roles more confidently and effectively - for everyone's benefit!

Why does this seem to happen so often? It does seem that the transition to sales management is one which can often prove a struggle! There is a long list of reasons, few of which are the fault of the person doing the sales manager's role. The organisation is probably a significant contributor to the problems facing the sales manager! A lack of clear succession planning is part of the equation. Maybe there is a limited understanding of what the role really involves, or should involve! The chances are that the senior management may share many of the misconceptions of the sales function and how it operates in a successful environment. Where sales is concerned, there is usually too much short-term thinking and a focus on results. I agree that the sales manager is there to achieve the targets and to work within a budget. However, to paraphrase the great Peter Drucker, "sales results are not an objective in their own right, they are an outcome of achieving the other objectives." Another tripping point can be an expectation that the new sales manager should be acting like a predecessor - provided they were successful and, typically, outgoing and told a convincing tale about how things would turn out!

In common with many other managers, the sales managers have probably been promoted into their role with little real preparation, guidance or training. This will be compounded if they were given the opportunity because they were one of the best in the sales team. (Rather than choosing the person with the right qualities to do the job.) Sales does have an additional time pressure, in that results need to keep being obtained from the outset. There is little time for a learning curve! Without the development support the newly appointed manager has a limited range of choices. A typical response is to think about role models we have known and adopt and adapt what we liked or respected about them. This is often done unconsciously as well as consciously. Entering a new role with more responsibility carries different pressures. These will cause most people to feel some degree of under-confidence. To overcome this, it is natural to do some things which will help to reinforce confidence. For many, this will mean finding opportunities to prove they are worthy of the new role. Where are these? Dealing with customers, chasing the large order and proving to the sales team why the manager should have been given the job!

This latter approach may help the manager feel more confident, or give then the buzz they had when they were a seller. It will probably also start to diminish any respect they may have from the team, especially if some of these orders are taken from their customers. It hardly does their confidence any good as they will feel undermined!

The root of the problem is frequently something as fundamental as the actual job description. How well does it set out the range of responsibilities and tasks? Does it define the competencies required to do the job well? The key outcome for a sales manager is to achieve the required sales targets and margins. This should be done by using the resources effectively, especially the sales team! Taking a few orders might help in the short-term and reinforce the ego of the sales manager, it will not provide an ongoing solution for under-performance with team members.

What can be done to improve this and make sales managers operate more effectively? Begin at the beginning with a clearly defined job description as mentioned above! This can be a great help with recruitment or promotion and might reduce the classic tendency of promoting the top seller. (A frequent recipe for disaster as they may not succeed in the role and end up leaving, or being asked to leave. On the way to this, they may have upset a number of the sales team who do worse and might leave!) This job description needs to emphasise that the role involves a variety of activities which are not connected with their own face to face selling. When it is clear what the competencies are and the sales manager can assess themselves against these, some form of development plan can be identified to close any gaps.

The sales manager needs to understand the overall strategy and know how to plan - especially in developing a sales plan. They have to be able to analyse the current situation, market and competition as a starting point. As part of their plan they need to evaluate the capabilities of the sales team and decide whether they have the appropriate structure to deliver against the strategy and plan.

If there is no clearly defined sales process, it will help if they can identify one and break it down to the main steps. From this, they can identify the critical areas to monitor and control. Knowing these points can give the early warning signals if their might be problems in achieving the results later and can also help with more accurate forecasting. There are plenty of software systems to help with this aspect, from the top end such as Oracle and Seibel through SalesTrak to ACT or Golmine.

From this, you can see that a key part of the role is desk-bound, making time to think, assess and make decisions. This is only part of the whole! While the desk time can help in identifying areas to set targets and goals, it is not the best place to evaluate the skills and potential of the sales team. The job description should establish some key performance indicators about time spent with the sales team on field visits.

Days spent with the sales team will usually have multiple aims. The primary one is to support and develop the sales person. Observing them with the prospects or customers, reviewing how the call went and then coaching them to improve. A key part of this is to provide useful feedback and support. (Not just blaming or criticising or saying how you, the manager, would have done it!) There is also an element of communication and relationship building to keep the seller informed of things within the organisation and also getting to know more about them. None of these is really achievable working from a desk and trying to manage by telephone and email! A minor part of the day is to also meet with customers and find out what they are thinking about the organisation and its service.

If the organisation has a key (or major) account strategy, there might be valid reasons for the sales manager to have direct contact with some of the personnel in the accounts. This should be at the direction of the account manager or sales person as they are in charge of the account. The sales manager is there to support them not to take over!

There will be some other time with the sales team, whether one to one or at sales meetings. The sales manager can use these to review performance, communicate, deal with problems and agree the way forward. The balance of the sales manager's time might be spent between doing their own administration activities and also interacting with other functions in the organisation.

Across all of these there is no emphasis on being the super seller!! The role is to be the sale manager. This means getting the results through the resources available - and the main resource is the sales people, whether in the field or on the phone. The sales manager needs to develop their management skills in analysis, planning, monitoring and then grow their leadership skills alongside these to develop and support their people. Learn to get motivation through seeing the team achieve rather than getting that deal! The job can become more enjoyable, the sales people are more successful and positive, and results improve. Do this and everyone is happier from the top down and through the sales team!

Graham Yemm is a partner in Solutions 4 Training and has over 20 years experience working with organisations, internationally and in the UK on sales strategy, sales management and developing selling skills. He can be reached through info@solutions4training.com or +44 1483 480656.

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Successful Sales Without Selling Your Soul

My business card read, almost like a bad joke, Account Executive. I had never sold anything in my adult life! But here I was with a list of clients waiting for me to call on them.

I just inherited another salesman's territory where he had spent his last 30 years selling radio commercials. He introduced me to each of his customers and walked into the sunset of retirement, perhaps a bit relieved.

I was not relieved. I was scared to death.

So I went to the bookstore and bought every book I could find on the subject of sales. I read like a madman, and to my surprise I discovered something amazing about sales. Sales is not magic.

Most people view sales unlike any other profession. There is a mystery about it and an aura that surrounds it. We refer to great sales people as wizards and rainmakers, modern-day magicians. Sales, however, is not magic.

IF IT'S NOT MAGIC, THEN WHAT IS IT?

Effective selling is about finding the specific steps of action that apply to the customer you are trying to reach and doing those actions over and over and over again.

That is what I discovered about sales, that if I could clearly identify the businesses that were most likely to use my group of radio stations and reached out to them in a consistent, systematic way, I would succeed in sales.

And I did, being the fastest in my company to achieve $250,000 and $1 million in radio revenue.

This is NOT what most small businesses owners experience with sales. The experience of most small business owners is much like a ride at an amusement park, just not as fun. Sales go up and sales go down, with no explicable reason for either.

As their sales rollercoaster twists and turns through their fiscal year, they are left exhausted and despairing never free from those gut wrenching meetings with your sales staff when, after getting bad news from the accountant, you scream, "What can we do to increase sales around here!!!"

THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO GETTING OFF THE SALES ROLLERCOASTER

It's time to get off the sales roller coaster forever. It's time to destroy the myth that sales is magic and replace it with a step-by-step system that even the least sales savvy person can follow. Here's how:

1. Understand each of the five phases of the sales cycle outlined below.

2. Identify the specific steps of action, or best practices, for each of the five phases of the sales cycle that work for your business.

3. Implement your best sales practices consistently and review them rigorously.

FIVE PHASES OF EVERY BUSINESS' SALES CYCLE

PHASE ONE: Contacting

Make a powerful, personal connection with your target customer, the person or business that is the BEST fit for your products and services. Know who they are. Go where they are. Deliver value first. Build rapport. Gain their trust. Great sales are based on great relationships. Start here first. Start here well.

PHASE TWO: Engaging

Conduct a two-way conversation with your target customer. Don't dump on them! Let's be honest. Most sales people are great conversationalists and tend to talk WAY too much. This is not a time for talking; it is a time for listening. Ask relevant questions, dig deeper, and learn. Then tell your story.

PHASE THREE: Demonstrating

In a vivid, personal, emotionally compelling way, show how your small business delivers on its promise without fail. It may be through testimonials, also known as business impact stories, or through a dramatic presentation. Just make it powerful and make it compelling.

PHASE FOUR: Deciding

Everyone needs a little help making that final step of commitment (How else would any of us get married?). Without being manipulative, encourage your target customer to make a decision that is in their best interest. A few simple, honest techniques work wonders here.

PHASE FIVE: Following-through

Do what you said you were going to do every time. Surprise your new customer with extra value they didn't known about (That's called under-promising and over-delivering). Wow them with your service and enjoy a customer for life.

THREE BIG BENEFITS TO GETTING OFF THE SALES ROLLERCOASTER

When you follow the five phases outlined above and implement customized best practices, you will experience three incredible benefits.

First, your revenue flow will become reliable. A hit or miss approach to sales delivers hit or miss results. Sure, you'll still have to work. But a systematic approach to sales brings in revenue on a consistent basis and gets you off the sales roller coaster.

A second benefit is extricating your business from dependence on a sales superstar. Most sales departments have a person who makes most of the sales while others linger in the shadows. Often than person is hard to work with, and a business owner feels held hostage by him. You don't like the tone he brings to your company, but you can't afford to live without the money he brings in.

The impact of fully implementing a step-by-step sales system is that revenue is not dependent on a dynamic personality (that is, a magician). Anyone can do it. Even superstars slip into a slump and have no idea why. Reviewing the system can trigger things in their mind that they may have forgotten to do consistently. In the end, even the superstar will be grateful to you for it!

And the best part is, using this step-by-step system, you'll have a predictive income tool and be able to forecast revenue 30, 60, and 90 days out. Apart from the obvious emotional impact of this benefit, there is an important strategic one as well.

With this predictive income tool in place, you can identify what is NOT selling in advance and fix it before the end of the month when money is tight. By that time you can't do anything about it, except conduct a fire sale and undermine your value.

Sales forecasting based on a customized sales cycle, however, allows you to look into the future, predict, at least in part, what is happening in the marketplace, and respond appropriately BEFORE it's too late to do anything meaningful about it.

Three steps, five phases, and three benefits. Now get off that roller coaster forever!

Do you own your own business or does it own you? Discover the difference with The Business Fitness System from Bill Zipp, President of Leadership Link. Bill is a seasoned small business specialist whose proven program provides a step-by-step plan for building a strong, self-sustaining small business. For a FREE Special Report, The 3 Biggest Killers of Small Businesses Today (And What YOU Can Do About Them!) visit http://www.LeadershipLink.net

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Creativity is the Key to Successful Sales Team Compensation

For any business, creativity is a vital part of a sales and marketing program. Developing effective concepts and strategies that help market and sell a product or service are an essential part of generating sales. However, the compensation plan for sales teams is often an overlooked, uninspired part of a sales and marketing strategy that is too frequently delegated to the payroll or accounting department.

With increasing pressure from competitors and an emphasis on recruiting and retaining the best sales talent, it is simply a mistake for a business to stick to an "old school" method of sales compensation out of inflexibility and unwillingness to consider more creative options. An effective compensation plan should do more than "pay" the sales team members. It serves a multitude of functions and can literally make or break a sales team's effectiveness and therefore, the business as a whole.

When considering the effectiveness of your company's current sales team compensation plan, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is the plan motivating the sales team?

2. Is the plan reducing attrition?

3. Is it rewarding the performance that we need/want the sales reps to focus on?

4. Is the sales team enthusiastic and satisfied?

5. Is the company attracting and retaining top sales talent?

6. Is the current plan going aligned with the desired corporate revenue growth?

If you answered no (or even maybe) to any of these questions, you probably need to explore other, more creative options to your company's sales compensation plan.

To begin, let's look at the four traditional approaches to sales compensation that most businesses have utilized with varying degrees of success:

The "straight salary" plan that doesn't pay commission promotes attention to the customer and a degree of sales rep loyalty, as long as the salary is competitive. However, it neglects those reps who thrive on competition and individual achievement. Often times, the most successful approach to using the "straight salary" plan is to combine it with an effective and aggressive corporate bonus program based upon corporate profits that are distributed to the employees.

"Salary plus commission" is another common compensation strategy that offers sales reps a guaranteed base salary and commission. Generally, businesses only offer relatively high base salaries to seasoned reps that they feel can "hit the ground running" and quickly make enough commission to "earn their keep." Commission percentages will vary based on a number of factors including gross profit, cost of sale, sales cycle, and the complexity of the sale.

Similar to the "salary plus commission," the third commonly practiced method of sales compensation is the "salary plus draw." This plan advances a predetermined amount of commission to a rep each month with the hopes that the rep sells enough to reimburse the company. There are two distinct types of "salary plus draw" methods. The recoverable draw is where a rep is responsible for paying for shortfalls in commissions out of the next month's commissions. Non-recoverable draw doesn't require a rep to reimburse the company for shortfalls. Recoverable draws offer less financial exposure to a company, but non-recoverable draws are more attractive to reps who will have increased stability in their earnings during their first months on the job.

Finally, the "sink or swim" sales compensation plan, also known as "pay for performance" is the fourth traditional approach. Most companies realize that although there is no financial exposure (however, the lost opportunities cost should not be discounted), it may be extremely difficult to attract qualified or seasoned reps without offering any salary. As well, by not having any financial "leash" on reps, it is difficult to direct sales efforts and productivity.

Although all four of these approaches are widely used by companies, there are also highly effective, creative alternatives that can drive your sales team to new heights of success and greatly improve sales in the process. Before sitting down and simply drawing up a new compensation plan, you will need to take a good, hard look at the current compensation plan and sales team, as well as establish a new strategy for moving forward with any creative changes.

It is critical to remember that sales reps are generally unhappy about having their sales compensation plan changed without ample notice and participation. Keep the lines of communication open during this process. Ask for input and, if possible, make this a group process.

Step 1:

Now that you're ready to consider a new, creative approach to your company's sales compensation plan, let's identify the four goals that every plan should be achieving. Your plan should:

1. Motivate the sales reps.

2. Help you to recruit well-qualified, experienced sales reps.

3. Decrease attrition that will reduce recruiting and hiring expenses, and lower training costs.

4. Continuously improve the company's competitiveness.

Step 2:

Next you must evaluate the following factors before designing a new compensation plan. Once again, remember that changing someone's compensation induces anxiety and concern. You want to make certain that you take the following factors into account before making changes.

1. Review the complexity of the sale as well as the length of the sales cycle. Do your reps have the opportunity to earn results-driven compensation within a "reasonable" time frame or is the sales cycle extremely lengthy?

2. What is the tenure of the current sales team? Are they a mature, well-trained and seasoned group of veterans or are they more junior and require more "hand-holding and training?

3. Evaluate your company's "compensation competitiveness" in the industry / market. Do you attract the "best and the brightest" or do you find it difficult to recruit sales talent.

4. Do you suffer from a high rate of turnover in your sales department, therefore causing you to invest in continual "new hired" training and orientation?

5. When was the last time the company made a change in the compensation plan? Has your business changed yet your compensation remained the same?

6. What percentage of gross profit does the sales force cost the company?

7. Does the company reward the sales team in a way that supports the corporate vision/growth plan? (For instance if sales reps are incented to grow their existing account base then they will endeavor to cross-sell and introduce new products and services. If this effort is not rewarded they might be more prone to become "order-takers" vs "order-makers").

It is understood that the primary goal of any sales compensation plan is to reward the sales reps while allowing the company to generate a desired profit. Certainly it is unfair and a strong disincentive to have the company rolling in profits yet provide minimal returns to the reps that generated the business. Of course, on the flip side, a company that develops a compensation plan that does not take into account the required margin and desired profit undermines its ultimate growth and stability.

Of critical importance is understanding your firm's operating expenses and required margin so that your sales compensation does not get your company into financial hardship.

It is also important that your sales reps have easy access to their sales data so that they know where they stand in terms of their compensation and incentives.

Once these things are in place you can now look to getting creative with your sales compensation.

Creative Options:

Compensation Cafeteria Plan: Many companies have adopted a cafeteria plan for their health care and employee benefits. This type of plan can also be configured for compensation, and it allows your reps to select their compensation package based upon their lifestyle and financial circumstances. For instance, not all of your sales reps may need to have their commission paid monthly. They can afford to live on their salary and would prefer to earn an additional percent and get their commission checks on a quarterly or semi annual basis. Other sales reps would prefer to substitute a company car for some of their commission earnings or perhaps apply some of their commission dollars to some other perk (travel voucher, etc).

Adjustable Commission: In this scenario the sales reps receive no commission or very low commission at the beginning of the company's fiscal year. This lets the company cover their fixed expenses as early in the year as possible and once this has been accomplished the sales reps can start to earn their commission at a higher rate since the company is not financially exposed.

Monthly Payments: This is particularly effective when there is a lengthy sales cycle. This plan takes a positive approach and "assumes" that your sales reps will meet their annual quota and therefore, you distribute the commission that would be paid on this quota in a monthly payment. If a rep does not meet their quota at the end of the year they are responsible for "paying back" the shortfall.

Corporate Profitability Bonus": Sales reps that successfully reach a pre-established revenue target can become eligible for corporate bonuses that are based upon their contribution to the overall profitability of the firm. This allows your sales reps to profit when the company does and helps to facilitate corporate growth.

Ensuring Sales Rep Satisfaction:

Consider incorporating other incentives and recognition devices into your compensation model and make sure that your incentives are suitable for the individual rep.

An excellent approach is to survey your reps to find out what they would consider exciting and worthwhile. It's a great way to get your sales reps to buy-into the plan and will encourage the behaviors that are mutually rewarding.

Bottom-line, your sales compensation plan should be a win-win situation whereby your company accomplishes its desired profit and at the same time, motivates and rewards your reps.

Adrian Miller is President and Founder of Adrian Miller Sales Training, a sales consultancy that she launched in 1989. Adrian is also the author of "The Blatant Truth: 50 Ways to Sales Success" and is a well-known and highly regarded speaker and consultant. Always entertaining and rigorously practical, Adrian can energize and motivate your sales force to reach new heights. She also works with solopreneurs and professional services providers to help them grow their business using high-impact sales process.

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Elements Of A Successful Sales Performance Management System

The components of a successful sales performance management system include first of all having well defined revenue plans and revenue and margin objectives. Often times, this includes having bookings objectives for your individual sales people. Having well defined sales territories relating to those targets. And of course, having a strong, well documented plan, in terms of who your target markets and customers are within your territories.

In addition to having a revenue plan, other components of the sales performance management system include a job description that is expectation based where the outcomes are clearly defined are very important in terms of overall requirements for success in the job.

The next component of successful sales performance management system is actually having individual revenue margin and booking objectives for each of your people. Typically, this is done an annualize basis with your people going through a planning cycle once you've defined your overall company's revenue plans. You should put together targets, annual revenue and bookings goals for each of your salespeople that are tied to that overall revenue plan. And often times you'll be doing a measuring and monitoring of performance relative to those actual revenue goals systematically on a monthly or quarterly basis in addition to that.

The next element of a successful sales performance management system is having an annual territory plan that your salespeople are working towards. This territory plan should be developed in concert with sales management in your sales people and it should list not only your major objects but also key accounts that you're targeting, the strategies to get into those accounts, should probably have a section about both new business development as well as account maintenance or account management and also have a section related to actual channel management strategies that your sales people are going to be carrying out. This is a once page document that can be put together in a template and passed out to your sales people and used as a tool for them to conduct annual sales planning.

Again, having a plan in place allows you to use that plan as a tool for measuring and monitoring performance against that plan and having ongoing discussions with your sales people related to how they're progressing against the objectives and the overall plan that they've set at the outset of the year.

The next element of a successful sales performance management system has nothing to do with actual goals objectives or plans, but everything to do with sales management's role in working with individuals on the sales team. This is the most critical element. Sales people are only as good as they are being managed by sales management. A lot of companies expect sales people to be left at their own devices, but just like any other team, sales people need to be managed and the foundation for that, of course, is having somebody in place in your sales management function who is willing to work closely with their people.

The role of sales management in developing and using a sales performance management system is probably most principally based upon the notion of sales management working closely with sales team members on an on going basis and establishing a relationship of trust, confidence, and mentorship. And that relationship built between sales management and its team is fundamental to empowering sales people to be successful in their jobs.

The role of sales management is to track sales activity and measure and monitor performance and to coach sales people to success. Tracking activity can be done very easily when your company has a successful CRM implementation. We use salesforce.com to develop customized dashboards that give management a quick snapshot of each of their sales people's activity in terms of amount of prospecting, amount of actual account qualification and actually being able to measure and track the activity of the sales people as it relates to moving deals through the actual sales process towards close.

Measuring and monitoring performance isn't just about really tracking activity but in a deeper sense, getting behind the activity to understand what it is that's working and what's not working with each sales person's territory. A good example of that is working with accounts. Is the sales person doing a good job of mapping out an actual customer prospect, in terms of people, decision makers, influencers and decision making processa and then working hard in order to touch all the bases to develop and advance the sale with all of the different constituents inside a specific account. This is where sales management needs to work deeply to measure and monitor sales performance and this is not a trivial task. It requires active engagement from sales management in order to do this.

Another foundation of good sales management, of course, is coaching your people to success. There is all sorts of schools of thoughts out there about how to best work with people but in this day and age, which is one of empowerment, people want to feel like they're involved in the decision making processes of their job. They want to feel like their opinion is heard by management. So a more enlightened approach to coaching your people today in today's management environment is really working with sales people to help them to understand and reach their own conclusions about how they can improve their sales performance.

Coaching requires active engagement which requires in turn, time spent seriously involved in a sales person's day to day, week to week routine activities. There's a number of different ways to do this, of course. The most effective way is spending one on one time with your sales people in the field actually visiting accounts, strategizing them, talking about and preparing for sales calls, going on those sales calls and then debriefing after those sales calls to talk about what happened, what was learned and how could the sales call have been improved. Most sales people learn by doing, and so the active coaching is the art of getting out with your people into the field and then actually working with them to help them to understand how they can enhance their sales performance and their sales technique.

Another element, in addition to regular sales visits, is frequent phone contact with your sales people just to check in with them to find out how things are going, and frequent informal discussions with sales people to just show them that you care and also giving them feedback on problems and challenges that they are facing on specific accounts as they raise those issues to you. Knowing which accounts your sales people are working on is the foundation for asking them questions on a regular basis about how things are going on those accounts and showing your sales people that you are actually engaged with them in an active relationship and are interested in helping them to find ways to win. When your sales people win, your company wins.

Yet another element is holding regular sales meetings. Some companies only do this on a very infrequent basis and the sales meeting should be a primary component of your sales performance management system. By formalizing sales meetings and holding them on a regular basis, you're showing your sales team that you're creating an environment of accountability and information exchange. Sales meetings can be used for a number of purposes including information gathering, finding out how your sales team members are performing.

Providing training for your sales people which is very important. Providing ongoing sales training is a way to make sure that your sales people are always sharpening their saw and that you're giving them the latest tools in order to improve their sales performance. So typically, we work on sales technique training as well as product training and customer and market training as well. Other things to do in sales meetings include providing recognition incentives and rewards, taking time in your sales meetings to praise and celebrate the successes of your people is a great way of showing them that you really do care about their performance and you're willing to celebrate those success and give them recognition and rewards as appropriate for the successes that they have. So holding sales meetings is an important part of making sure that you have a motivated, high performance sales team that's working together and is accountable for its activities.

The more that sales people understand that they are accountable for producing themselves and are held accountable through these different vehicles that we've talked about the better your sales performance is going to be from your people. So building and deploying a successful sales performance management system is something that a company cannot live without and needs to be taken very seriously.

Of course the best sales performance system is only as good as the people who are running it and when it comes right down to it, running a high performance sales team is all about good leadership. What is good leadership? That's not the subject that I want to cover here but I certainly do want to say this: Leadership is about passion, about vision, about connectedness, about motivating people, about finding out what it is that unlocks the door to people's special performance and help8ing them to realize, open that door and go there. So in some way, building a successful sales performance management system is a key to accelerating your company's sales and as your organization continues to grow, it becomes more important in order to achieve high performance scalability and repeatability in your processes.

Cube Management helps companies accelerate their sales, by providing the Sales & Marketing talent they need to grow their business. Cube is a leading recruiting and consulting partner to mid-market and emerging growth companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare and business service sectors. We work across the spectrum of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, providing holistic solutions that drive revenue and profit success. Cube Management combines Strategy, Process and People, to produce great results. Download the Cube Management Recruiting Guide and the Cube Management Inside Sales Guide.

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Piano Stories - How Literature Helps Piano Students Become Successful Musicians

Do you remember the very first stories you learned as a young child? I bet you do. And most likely you learned them from your parents and caregivers who used song as a way to comfort, teach and entertain you. Yep! All those nursery songs about the alphabet, numbers, and eeeentsy-weeentsy spiders were using music to prepare your brain for speech. So forget all that left brain nonsense our parents were taught about music. When grandma was playing the piano, she was enjoying the interplay of both left and right brain activity. This is why learning to play the piano is so beneficial to children. It stimulates neural development, using all five of the basic creative skills. They include Seeing (or Visualization), Observing, Forming Analogies, Inverting, and Simplification. These are the same creative applications found in literature, art and science.

Just as musical stories helped your child establish a foundation of creative skills for language and math concepts, the reverse is also true. Literature, art, and science can help your child achieve their musical dreams! Below are examples of how this happens in piano.

Visualization - "What would it look like if you could do it?

Visualization is probably the most difficult creative skill to develop. Having a keyboard in the imagination, however, gives a powerful boost to piano students' playing and note reading ability. So it's worth it for students to spend time developing this creative skill. Here's an example of how young piano students can start to do this. The piano has groups of two and three-black keys. There are three white keys around each group of two black keys. Ask your child in piano to close their eyes and pretend to draw two very large black keys in the air. Then while their eyes are still closed ask: "Can you see the white key of the left of the two-black keys? It's a C. Can you see the one on the right? It's an E. Can you see the one in the middle? It's a D." Keep this up throughout piano lesson sand soon your child will be able to visualize music, scales and chords, as well as hear them! Use visualization whenever your child is frustrated with learning something new in piano. Just ask, "What would it look like if you could do it?" This gets kids using their imagination and seeing possible solutions through their mind's eye, just as stories do.

Observation - "Eureka! I never noticed that before!"

Observation is about carefully noticing the little things to find similarities and differences. For example, what's the difference between staccato and legato notes, or an accent mark and a tenuto mark. Hey, is that a triplet or three eighth notes? Wow, this creative skill sure is important in playing piano! Students use this skill in learning piano when they ask? "How are these notes the same? How are they different?" Piano students use this creative process just as scientists do to find surprises in nature that were always there, waiting to be discovered. Remind your child in piano to use observation to overcome challenges in the music. You'll enjoy hearing them say things like, "Eureka! I never noticed that before!"

Analogies - How to Gain Perspective/ Change Perspective?

Analogies are used to gain or change our perspective. Here are some examples of how analogies help piano students. To play legato, pretend your fingers are an eeeentsy-weeensty spider. Curve the spider's legs and walk your fingers on the piano keys. To play staccato notes, imagine the piano keys are hot! To show your child how analogies can change our perspective, and teach us new concepts, try this: Sing the words to the song Amazing Grace to the tune from the television show, Gilligan's Island. Go ahead. Sing it now. "I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." I bet that made you laugh :o)

Inverting - What would that look like if I turned it upside down?

Inverting also affects perspective by turning things upside down, or by taking things to extremes. Einstein did this when he obsessed over a beam of light and invented the theory of relativity. Einstein also loved music. Like his theory of relativity, many things we want to understand are counter-intuitive, including the piano techniques students need to play well. To tap into this creative function piano students can ask this question. "What would this look like if I turned it upside down?" Here's a creative suggestion you can give your child for polishing a recital piece using this skill. Play the music backwards! Start with last measure instead of the first. Then play the last two measures, then the last three, then the last four, etc., until you reach the first measure. Then play the song all the way through and see how much better you can do it. This is a great way for students to thoroughly learn a piece of music.

Simplifying - "I've seen that some place before?"

Simplifying is how we find creative solutions to difficult challenges by eliminating what is unnecessary. Ever try too hard? Here's a tip - Sometimes less is more. Before trying to re-invent the wheel, look back through the history books to see where this problem has been solved before by someone else, or yourself. Piano students can do this by asking, "Where have I seen this in music before?" "How did I play it then?" "What strategy can I follow to break this down and make it easier?" "What playing strategies has my piano teacher told me that I could apply here?" Or students can read a book to find out what other pianists have done.

So there you have it, piano parents. Five creative reasons to use literature, as well as art, science, and history to help your musical child achieve their piano dreams.

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com for my Piano Bears Musical Stories for Children The exciting Piano Bears Musical Stories for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Children love following along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary's piano studio in Musical Acres Forest. Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading "Little Bear's Musical Garden" and "Little Bear's Piano Goals."

For a wealth of f'ree information and piano music online visit Piano Bears Music Education Resources Don't Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

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Know Thy Enemy: A Guide to Successful AP English Literature Test Preparation

All one has to do is go to the test preparation section of any major bookstore to see what serious business it is. Books, DVDs, guides, games. There are classes and private tutors and online tutorials and forums galore. Testing has become such a crucial part of the high school experience; no wonder high school students are so stressed out.

There really is no one right way to prepare for any test, but there are strategies that students can use to save time, depending on the test. Studying for subjects is more straightforward than others. In math and science, it's all about learning the formulas and understanding the concepts. Students need to review their lessons over and over again and make sure that they understand not just that y=mx+b, but the logic behind that. It's definitely not easy, but at least it's less vague than studying for some exams in the arts and humanities.

The AP English Literature exam can seem like a total beast. How can anyone possibly prepare; read everything ever written? Of course not. In fact, a student who is well-versed in literary terminology and incredibly familiar with just a handful of classic novels will likely fare better on the exam than someone with a passing familiarity with a larger volume of literature. The trick is to understand the nature of the test itself.

For the multiple choice section, it's important to know fancy words like apostrophe (and not in terms of punctuation) as well as some crucial names, dates, and facts, but for the essay section, it's much more useful to very knowledgeable about a particular work of literature. Granted, this work should be part of the literary canon; The Scarlet Letter is better than The Devil Wears Prada. Having deep knowledge and insight into one or two great works of literature can get a student just as far in the essay section of the AP English Literature test as having knowledge about fifty works. Seriously.

That's not to say that knowing 50 great works of literature well isn't great. It is. The essay section will present a theme and ask a student to expand upon that theme using examples from a list of classic novels. If that student has Scarlet Letter quotes, Jane Eyre quotes and Hamlet quotes memorized and ready to use in support of a thesis statement, she'll be able to choose the work of literature that best relates to the prompt and be that much better prepared to write a 5-worthy essay.

However, in case the only Hamlet quotes the student happens to know are "to be or not to be", but she is intimately familiar with the works of Bronte, she should always choose to write about the work she knows best, even if she thinks writing about Shakespeare will make her seem smarter (it probably won't). Students tend to have better ideas about works of literature that they love, and those are the ones they should write about in essays, if they're given a chance. Plus, whatever deep and original thought a high school senior make think has about Hamlet has been explored to death in at least 100 college term papers, so she won't be winning any intellectual or creativity points there.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of interests include researching on Scarlet Letter quotes, Hamlet quotes, and AP English Literature. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

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